Source-Analysis Tasks

Directions: Closely read and examine the sources provided in order to complete a series of source-analysis tasks that result in a thesis statement and multiparagraph outline. The sources and tasks relate to the following evidence-based prompt:

Task A: Analyze the prompt and sources
Focus: Break down the prompt, access prior knowledge, and examine the evidence

Task B: Build the thesis from evidence
Focus: Synthesize the evidence, generate initial claims, and draft and contextualize the thesis

Task C: Create an essay outline
Focus: Write an introductory paragraph and outline body paragraphs using topic sentences and supporting details

Note: The following sources have been edited for the purposes of this performance task.

SOURCE 1

Diary of Nicolo Barbaro, a Venetian surgeon present at the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire, 1453

But still these evil Turks did not cease at any hour of the day or the night bombarding the gate, where the repairs had been made, with all their force: their whole strength was concentrated on this gate, with shots from their great cannon, which had a circumference of fifteen palme,* from their other cannon, and also from great numbers of guns, countless bows and many hand guns which continually fired at those who were making the repairs.

*Roughly 12 feet

SOURCE 2

Primary flow of silver 1570–1750

SOURCE 3

“Akbar Receives Gifts from the Ambassadors of Badakhshan,” an illustration from the Book of Akbar, a biography of Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great written by his court historian, c. 1603. Badakhshan was a region in Central Asia.

Chester Beatty Library: Dublin

SOURCE 4

The “Sacred Edict,” which was adopted by the Qing Dynasty as a set of rules to govern all territories under the emperor’s control, c. 1670

• Esteem most highly family devotion and brotherly submission, in order to give due importance to human moral relations.
• Cultivate peace and concord in your neighborhoods, in order to prevent quarrels and litigations.
• Do away with errant teachings, in order to exalt the correct doctrine.
• Lecture on the laws, in order to warn the ignorant and obstinate.
• Explain ritual decorum and deference, in order to enrich manners and customs.
• Warn against sheltering [army] deserters, in order to avoid being involved in their punishment.
• Promptly pay your taxes, in order to avoid being pressed for payment.

SOURCE 5

Sir William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, c. 1668

The great application of the Dutch Provinces to the fishing trade off the coasts of England and Scotland employs an incredible number of ships and seamen and supplies most of the Southern parts of Europe with a rich and necessary commodity.

Lastly, I shall mention the mighty advance they have made towards controlling the whole commerce of the East Indies through their successes against the Portuguese and their many wars and victories against the natives. The Dutch have forced the natives to sign treaties of commerce, exclusive to all other nations, and to allow forts to be built upon straits and passes that are the entrances into the shipping lanes of the islands of Indonesia. This has been achieved by so many of their people and mariners manufacturing every year so many great ships for such voyages.

By its conduct and application, the Dutch East India Company has managed Indonesia like a commonwealth rather than a trade. They have raised a state in the Indies, governed by a company, but otherwise functioning like a sovereign state, making war and peace with the greatest local kings and able to bring to sea forty or fifty war boats and thirty thousand men by the lowest estimate.

SOURCE 6

Detail of Giuseppe Castiglione’s painting of Kazaks offering horses in tribute to Emperor Qianlong, c. 1757

World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

SOURCE 7

From Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

The maintenance of this monopoly on trade with the American colonies has until now been an important, or perhaps the only, aim of British dominion over her colonies. The Spanish war, which began in 1739, was principally a colony quarrel. Britain’s main objective in the war was to prevent the search of British ships which carried on an illegal trade with the Spanish colonies. This whole experience is, in reality, a bounty which has been given in order to support a monopoly.

TASK C: CREATE AN OUTLINE